The Diabetic Mammy Podcast

In this gentle and grounding episode of The Diabetic Mammy Podcast, we explore one of the most frustrating and misunderstood parts of living with Type 1 diabetes: waking up high before the day has even begun.If you’ve ever opened your eyes, checked the monitor, and felt that sinking feeling of being “behind” before breakfast, this episode is for you.Catherine explains the dawn phenomenon in clear, compassionate terms, breaking down what is actually happening in the early hours of the morning. As part of The Things We Were Not Taught series, this episode fills in a crucial gap in diabetes education: understanding the body’s natural diurnal rhythm and the role of hormones like cortisol and growth hormone.This episode moves beyond numbers and into the emotional weight of starting the day in correction mode. It gently challenges the self-blame that so often accompanies morning highs and offers a softer, more biologically informed perspective, allowing us to reframe early morning highs as information, not failure.Because you cannot out-organise cortisol. You cannot out-care growth hormone. And perfectionism does not override physiology.If mornings have been feeling relentless, this conversation will help you start the day with understanding rather than criticism.You are not behind. You are informed.

Compression lows are one of those diabetes experiences that can feel frightening, disruptive, and deeply unsettling - yet are rarely explained clearly at diagnosis.In this episode of The Diabetic Mammy Podcast, Catherine explores what compression lows actually are, why they happen most often at night, and why they can so easily shake confidence in both the technology and ourselves.Through a real-life endocrinology appointment moment, this episode gently unpacks how pressure on a continuous glucose monitor during sleep can mimic falling glucose levels, triggering alarms that feel urgent - even when blood glucose is actually stable. These false alarms can lead to repeated night-time wakings, unnecessary treatments, broken sleep, and the familiar morning spiral of highs, frustration, and self-doubt.This episode is not about “doing better” or reacting perfectly at 3am.It’s about understanding what you’re seeing, reducing panic, and naming the invisible emotional load that compression lows carry - especially for parents and long-term carers who feel they “should know better by now.”Listeners are invited to reflect on the tension between trusting diabetes technology and trusting lived experience, and to recognise that there is no flawless decision-making in the middle of the night - only human decisions made with the best information we have available to us.Above all, this episode offers reassurance: Not all hypos are real. But the fear around them absolutely is.This conversation is part of The Things We Were Not Taught series - created to give families language, context, and permission where education may have left gaps short.A grounding listen for parents of children with Type 1 diabetes, adults living with diabetes themselves, and anyone who has ever been jolted awake by an alarm and left questioning their judgement.

This episode marks Imbolc and St Brigid’s Day, a quiet hinge in the Irish year that reminds us that not all beginnings need to be loud or dramatic. Imbolc is about noticing small shifts, the light arriving a little earlier, the dark loosening its grip, and the reassurance of “just enough”.For those of us living with chronic conditions, raising children with type 1 diabetes, or simply carrying a lot, this episode offers a softer counterpoint to the pressure to reset, reboot, and optimise. Instead, it invites gentle beginnings, tending rather than transforming, and recognising maintenance as meaningful work.Drawing on the traditions of Imbolc and the care-centred legacy of St Brigid, this episode reflects on the unseen, repetitive labour of diabetes care. The daily acts that sustain life, even when they go unnoticed. Changing sensors, packing glucose, checking overnight, adjusting again.There is space here for tiredness, for January heaviness, and for letting go of guilt about what didn’t get done. This is an episode about aiming for enough rather than perfect. Enough sleep, enough safety, enough compassion.For parents, it reframes protection not as preventing every storm, but as helping our children live safely within difficulty. We are not raising children to be untouched by challenge, but to withstand it.A gentle episode for a gentle season, reminding us that quiet tending still counts, and that slow, careful beginnings are still beginnings.

This week’s episode of The Diabetic Mammy Podcast introduces a new gentle mini-series called The Things We Were Not Taught which exploring some quiet curriculum gaps that shape life with Type 1 diabetes.Drawing on her research with parents of children diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, Catherine reflects on how much education arrives at times when learning simply isn’t possible. Overwhelm, fear, and exhaustion mean important ideas are often missed : not through inattention, but through timing.Exploring clever insulin pumps without promotion, she explains what has quietly changed and how many families were never taught the shift in thinking behind modern systems.Catherine revisits the basal–bolus model and then explains the quiet revolution of modern pumps: systems that link a pump, a CGM, and an algorithm to respond to trends early, with small, frequent adjustments. Diabetes doesn’t become easy, but it can become a little less loud.The episode also names what clever pumps don’t replace and highlights that while the work doesn’t disappear, the mental load shifts from constant vigilance to quieter supervision.Finally, Catherine explores the emotional layer many families weren’t prepared for: guilt, grief, and the feeling of having “failed before” when numbers improve with technology. She gently reframes this, reminding listeners that needing support isn’t weakness, and that good diabetes care isn’t measured by devices, but by safety, sustainability, and whether life remains liveable.This episode sets the tone for the mini-series: compassionate, contextual, and deeply human, offering not more rules, but a kinder understanding of the things we were not taught.

Living with or parenting Type 1 diabetes can feel relentlessly isolating. The decisions start before breakfast and often stretch long past bedtime. In this episode of The Diabetic Mammy Podcast, we explore why community connection is not an optional extra in Type 1 diabetes care, but a vital part of thriving.This episode speaks directly to parents of children with Type 1 diabetes, adults living with T1D, and partners and carers who carry the emotional and mental load alongside the practical work of diabetes management. We move beyond “coping” and into what it really means to feel resourced, regulated, and supported while navigating life with a chronic condition.We discuss how being seen and understood by people who live Type 1 diabetes every day can ease decision fatigue, reduce burnout, and calm the nervous system. From diabetes conferences and education sessions to informal meet-ups, online groups, and shared conversations, this episode highlights the many ways community shows up and why shared language matters more than perfect solutions.With a gentle January reframe, listeners are invited to consider connection as an act of self-care. Not more goals. Not more pressure. Just the quiet intention to stop doing diabetes alone. The episode also includes a warm invitation to Thriveabetes, a face-to-face Type 1 diabetes community event in Dublin, and reflects on the power of gathering with people who already understand the weight without needing it explained.If you are parenting a child with Type 1 diabetes, living with T1D yourself, or supporting someone you love, this episode offers reassurance, validation, and a reminder you may not hear often enough:You were never meant to carry Type 1 diabetes on your own.Connection is regulating. Support is care. And thriving is possible when we stop trying to do this alone.(Buy your Thriveabetes tickets @ https://thriveabetes.ie/thriveabetes-2026 )

In this reflective episode of The Diabetic Mammy Podcast, I sit with the idea of choosing your hard.Inspired by a Saint Stephen’s Day run and an honest conversation about work, home, food, movement and the everyday decisions we make, this episode explores a simple but powerful truth: life is hard, and so is living with and/or parenting type 1 diabetes. There is no easy option, only the path we choose and how gently we live inside it.I reflect on how diabetes weaves itself into every choice, from routines and energy to expectations and self-judgement, and offer permission to release the idea that there is a “right” or superior way to manage it all.The episode also pays tribute to a quiet, moving moment shared over Christmas with a listener who spoke about being deeply affected by the Welcome to Holland episode number 6 of this podcast (available @ https://open.acast.com/public/streams/6768991d15b96146455e80f3/episodes/683d9801708e9fc9b4394c66.mp3 ). A conversation about emotional processing, strength, and learning to feel as adults reminds us that tenderness and resilience can exist side by side, in all of us.A compassionate listen for anyone carrying invisible weight, navigating chronic illness, or simply doing their best inside a life that is already hard.

As this year draws to a close, this gentle episode invites you to pause before the countdown begins.Drawing on a Scottish New Year tradition of opening the back door to let the old year out, and the front door to welcome the new one in, Catherine reflects on what it truly means to live through another year with type 1 diabetes. The hard days survived. The quiet wins that often go unnoticed. The lessons learned about ourselves, our families, and diabetes itself.This episode offers space for reflection without judgement. There are no resolutions to set and no perfection to chase. Just an invitation to honour what you have carried, to recognise the resilience it has taken to get here, and to gently welcome the year ahead.Whether you are living with type 1 diabetes yourself or parenting a child with it, this episode is a calm companion as one year ends and another begins.A moment to breathe. A moment to reflect. And a reminder that you do not step into the new year alone.

In this Christmas week episode of The Diabetic Mammy Podcast, Catherine reflects on how to honour celebration while living with and parenting type 1 diabetes. Sparked by a simple comment, “Christmas must be a nightmare”, she gently challenges the idea that diabetes must dominate special days.This episode offers reassurance for anyone navigating their first festive season with type 1 diabetes, alongside validation for those further along the journey. Catherine introduces the idea of a safe minimum approach to Christmas Day, focusing on preparation, safety, and letting go of perfection in favour of presence and joy.Through lived experience, practical planning tips, and compassionate reframing, she explores the balance between diabetes care and connection. From adjusting expectations around numbers to embracing the concept of “time in happiness versus time in range”, this episode gives permission to let diabetes take a back seat, just for a day, without compromising safety.A gentle, grounding listen for parents, adults with type 1 diabetes, and anyone feeling the emotional weight of trying to do it all during the festive season. This episode invites grace, flexibility, and kindness towards yourself, reminding you that memories are made in the messy, joyful moments, not perfect blood sugar graphs.